wind. In spite of the terrific fire, the redskins
poured on. A ball sang by my ear, and another sent a shower of
splintered wood into my very face. Close on my right a man was shot
through the chest; farther to the left I saw a half-breed stagger and
fall.

"Steady, men!" rang out the factor's voice. "Stand firm and make every
shot tell!"

I poked my musket through the loophole and pulled trigger. It was next
to impossible to miss, so near was the foremost line of savages. I was
reloading in frantic haste, when the stockade in front of me creaked and
rattled. Above the top rose the heads and shoulders of three painted
warriors, and the next instant, with shrill cries, they had leaped into
the inclosure.

CHAPTER XXII.

HOT WORK.

I was standing so near that the three daring redskins all but fell upon
me. As I dodged quickly back, one let fly a tomahawk. I felt it graze my
head, and the next instant I had smashed the skull of the howling wretch
with the butt end of my musket. Already three more were over the
stockade, and the five fell upon our men with desperate fury. The
yelling and whooping, the cries of the wounded, made an infernal din. A
comrade on my left was shot in the mouth, and dropped writhing to the
ground; a half-breed at my very side clapped a hand to his arm and spun
round.

But by this time the scrimmage had been seen at a distance, and there
was a rally to the spot. Two savages were clubbed to death, and a third
fell by Captain Rudstone's musket. I shot a fourth through the chest,
but in spite of the wound, he made at me, and I had to settle him with a
blow above the ear.

For one Indian that was slain, however, two fresh ones scrambled into
the inclosure. There were as agile as cats, and as daring as panthers.
With bullet and tomahawk they assailed us, and we were soon hard-pressed
all along the line. There was fierce fighting on the north as well, and
so no help could be spared from that quarter. Indeed, I began to fear
that the fort would be taken by sheer numbers; and even while I was
engaged hand to hand with the painted fiends, I was meditating what
steps to take to save Flora.

But when the situation was most critical, several things befell to turn
the tide. At great risk a couple of plucky fellows loaded the
howitzer--it had been discharged once--and thrusting the muzzle out of
one of the boles provided for that purpo